Method and apparatus for overwriting data on recording-medium and the recording medium

ABSTRACT

In an embodiment of the method of over-writing a recording medium, if data for writing on the recording medium is to be written on a recorded portion of a user data area of the recording medium, an unrecorded portion of the recording medium is selected as a replacement portion for recording the data and the data is recorded in the replacement portion.

DOMESTIC PRIORITY INFORMATION

This application claims the benefit of priority on U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/581,717, filed on Jun. 23, 2004, the contents ofwhich are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

This application claims the benefit of priority on Korean ApplicationNo. 10-2004-0085288, filed on Oct. 25, 2004, the contents of which arehereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to recording media, and methods andapparatuses associated therewith.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

A new type of high density optical disc, such as a Blu-ray RE-writabledisc (BD-RE), that can record and store high definition audio and videodata for a long period of time, is being developed. As shown in FIG. 1,the BD-RE has a lead-in area, a data zone, and a lead-out area. An innerspare area (ISA) and an outer spare area (OSA) are respectivelyallocated at a fore end and a rear end of the data zone. A recordingunit of the BD-RE is a cluster. Referring to FIG. 1, whether or not adefect area exists within the data zone can be detected during therecording of the data. When a defect area is detected, replacementrecording operations are performed. For example, the data that isintended to be recorded in the defect area is recorded in a spare area(e.g., the inner spare area (ISA)). Then, position information of thedetected defect area and the replacement recorded spare area arerecorded and stored as management information in a defect list (DFL) ofa disc management area (DMA) located within the lead-in area.

During a read operation of this data, the data recorded in the sparearea is read and reproduced, instead of the data of the defect area, byaccessing the DFL; thereby preventing a data recording/reproducing errorfrom occurring.

A write-once recordable blu-ray disc (BD-WO) is also under development.Unlike a rewritable disc, data can only be recorded once in the entirearea of a write-once optical disc; and data cannot be physicallyoverwritten in the write-once optical disc. Nevertheless, there mayoccur instances, where it would be desirable to edit or partially modifyrecorded data. For example, for simplicity of use of the host or theuser, the virtual overwriting of the data may be desirable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an embodiment of the method of over-writing a recording medium, ifdata for writing on the recording medium is to be written on a recordedportion of a user data area of the recording medium, an unrecordedportion of the recording medium is selected as a replacement portion forrecording the data and the data is recorded in the replacement portion.

For example, an unrecorded portion of the user data area of therecording medium may be selected as the replacement portion. In oneembodiment, the user data area is divided into a number of recordingareas, and an unrecorded portion of a recording area is selected as thereplacement portion. In one embodiment, the selecting step selects anunrecorded portion in the recording area including the recorded portionas the replacement portion. In another embodiment, an unrecorded portionof a recording area, which is different from the recording areaincluding the recorded portion, is selected. In yet another embodiment,a spare area, which is separate from the user data area, is selected.

In another embodiment, management information recorded in a managementarea of the recording medium is accessed to determine if the data forwriting on the recording medium is to be written on a recorded portionof the user data area of the recording medium.

In yet another embodiment, an entry is recorded in a management area ofthe recording medium to indicate a location of the recorded portion anda location of the replacement portion.

In an embodiment of a method of reading data from a user data area of arecording medium, management information in a management area of therecording medium is accessed. the management information includes atleast one entry indicating a first recorded portion of the user dataarea and a second recorded portion of the user data area. The secondrecorded portion includes data for over-writing data in the firstrecorded portion. The data from the second recorded portion is read whenan instruction for reading data from the first recorded portion isreceived.

The embodiments of the present invention further includes apparatusesconfigured to perform the methods of the present invention.

Also, an embodiment of the present invention is directed to a recordingmedium having a data structure for managing over-writing of data on therecording medium. In this embodiment, the recording medium includes amanagement area for storing at least one entry. The entry indicates arecorded portion of a user data area of the recording medium that was tobe over-written with data and indicates a replacement portion of theuser data area storing the data for over-writing.

In another embodiment, the management area stores at least one entryindicating a first recorded portion of the user data area and a secondrecorded portion of the user data area. Here, the second recordedportion includes data for over-writing data in the first recordedportion.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of a general re-writable optical disc anda method for managing defects;

FIG. 2 illustrates a logical overwriting method for a write-once opticaldisc according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of logical overwriting being performed onan open sequential recording range (SRR) in a write-once optical discaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of logical overwriting being performed ona closed SRR in a write-once recordable optical disc according to anembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a next write address (NWA) selecting method duringlogical overwriting in a sequential recording mode (SRM) of a write-onceoptical disc according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates a sequential recording range information (SRRI)structure for a sequential recording mode according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a logical overwriting method for a random recordingmode (RRM) according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an optical recording andreproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to example embodiments of thepresent invention, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughoutthe drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

FIG. 2 illustrates a logical overwriting method for a write-once highdensity optical disc according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown, the write-once high density optical disc includes alead-in area, a data zone, and a lead-out area. The data zone includesan inner spare area (ISA), an outer spare area (OSA), and a user dataarea. The lead-in area is used as an area for recording diversemanagement information for recording/reproducing data on/from theoptical disc. The lead-in area may be provided with a temporary discmanagement area (TDMA), which is an area for recording defect managementinformation and recording management information for the optical disc. Aseparate additional TDMA within a spare may also be allocated fordefects that may frequently occur during the use of the optical disc andfor updating the recording management information.

In a write-once optical disc having the above-described structure, datarecording may be categorized into two types: a sequential recording mode(SRM) type and a random recording mode (RRM) type. In the SRM type, inorder to facilitate recording of data on the optical disc, the user dataarea in which actual user data is recorded is divided into a pluralityof consecutive recording areas for recording data. Each of the dividedplurality of consecutive recording areas is referred to as a SequentialRecording Range (SRR). The recording of data in a SRR is performed on anext recordable (or writable) non-recorded cluster. An address of thenext recordable non-recorded cluster in an SRR is referred to as a NextWritable Address (NWA). More specifically, in the SRR, a directlysubsequent unrecorded area after a recorded area becomes the NWA, andthe recording of data begins from the NWA. Therefore, when sequentialrecording of data is performed starting from the NWA, the NWA maydynamically increase in accordance with the recording of the data.

In the above-described SRM type, a command for writing (or overwriting)data in a recorded area or portion within a SRR (SRR #n) may be given(or made) by a user or a host. In this case, due to the characteristicof the write-once optical disc, physical writing of the data can only beperformed once, and so writing (or recording) of data on a recorded areais not possible. In other words, overwriting of data cannot bephysically performed. According to embodiments of the present invention,in the SRM type of the recordable high density optical disc, when anoverwriting command requesting data to be overwritten on a recorded areais given (or made), the data that is to be written on the recordedportion is instead recorded beginning at a NWA of the same SRR,beginning at a NWA of another SRR, or in a spare area. This is referredto as a Logical Overwrite (LOW).

For example, as shown in FIG. 2, when a writing (or recording) commandfor data B of a recorded data A area within an SRR (SRR #n) istransmitted, the data B that is to be recorded in the data A area iseither recorded at a next writable area, which is the NWA, of the SRRincluding the data A area or, alternatively, recorded in a spare area(e.g., the OSA). When the data is recorded in the NWA of the SRRincluding the data A area, a next writable area from the SRR (SRR #n)becomes NWA′. After performing the replacement recording of the data, asdescribed above, information on the position of the area in which datawas to be overwritten (i.e., data A area) and the replacement recordedarea (i.e., the data B area of the user data area or the data B area ofthe spare area) is recorded in the TDMA as a LOW entry. The LOW entry isbroadly categorized into two types: a Re-Allocated Defect (RAD) type anda Continuous Re-allocated Defect (CRD) type.

The LOW entry of the RAD type includes information on a logicaloverwriting performed in a single cluster. Each entry includes a firstphysical sector number (PSN) of a first cluster of the area in whichlogical overwriting is performed, and a first physical sector number(PSN) of a first cluster of the area in which replacement recording ofthe logical overwriting is performed. On the other hand, the LOW entryof the CRD type includes information on a logical overwriting performedin a plurality of consecutive clusters and, therefore, uses two entries.More specifically, one of the two entries includes a first PSN of afirst cluster wherein logical overwriting is performed, and a first PSNof a first cluster wherein replacement recording of the logicaloverwriting is performed. The other entry includes a first PSN of a lastcluster wherein logical overwriting is performed, and a first PSN of alast cluster wherein replacement recording of the logical overwriting isperformed.

Therefore, when the optical disc logically overwritten, as describedabove, is reproduced in a later process, an optical disc drive refers tothe entry information recorded in the TDMA and identifies theinformation of the logically overwritten area and the replacementrecorded area, thereby being able to reproduce the replacement recordeddata B area instead of the data A area. In the SRM type, it may bepreferable to perform the replacement recording of the logicaloverwriting in the NWA of the user data area rather than the spare area.More specifically, in the recordable optical disc, the spare area isalso used for replacement recording a defect area as a method of defectmanagement. Therefore, when the spare area is to be used for thereplacement recording of the logical overwriting, there lies a problemof having to ensure, in advance, a sufficient range of spare area, theusage of which is unclear, during the initialization of the opticaldisc. Thus, in order to avoid such problems, it may be preferable toperform replacement recording of the logical overwriting in the NWA ofthe user data area. When performing logical overwriting in the user dataarea using the SRM type, the logical overwriting can be performed whenthe SRR is open and when the SRR is closed.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of logical overwriting being performed onan open SRR in a write-once optical disc according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. In the SRM, an open SRR refers to a non-recordedSRR or an SRR having some recordable area (i.e., unrecorded portion)remaining. Open SRRs have an NWA. A closed SRR refers to when arecordable area in an SRR no longer remains or exists, or to an SRRchanged to a closed state, even though a unrecorded area or portion doesexist, but is no longer allowed due to a request from the user or host.Therefore, an NWA does not exist for a closed SRR. Referring to FIG. 3,when an overwriting command for a recorded area is received for an openSRR, the replacement recording may be performed in any of the open SRRs.In other words, when a command for overwriting data B on a recorded dataA area is received for an open SRR (SRR #n), the data B that is to berecorded on the data A area is either replacement recorded beginning atthe NWA of the SRR including the data A area, or replacement recordedbeginning at the NWA of any other open SRR.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of logical overwriting being performed ona closed SRR in a write-once optical disc according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Referring to FIG. 4, when the writing commandgiven (or made) by the host is an overwriting command on a recorded areain a closed SRR, since the closed SRR does not include an NWA, thereplacement recording is performed in an open SRR. At this point, whenoverwriting data on the recorded area of the closed SRR, the replacementrecording may also be performed in a spare area. More specifically, thereplacement recording is performed beginning at an NWA an open SRR or ina spare area such as the OSA. For a closed SRR, the replacementrecording may be specifically performed in a spare area instead of theuser data area.

As described above, the logical overwriting in a write-once high densityoptical disc in the SRM is performed at a NWA. In one embodiment, amaximum of 16 SRRs may be allocated, and a maximum of 16 NWAs may beincluded, accordingly. A method for selecting an NWA according to anembodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail withreference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 illustrates an NWA selecting method during logical overwriting ina sequential recording mode of a write-once optical disc according to anembodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, a plurality ofsequential recording ranges (SRRs) may be allocated in the user dataarea of the write-once high density optical disc. And, in thisembodiment, a maximum of 16 SRRs may be allocated. Each of the open SRRsincludes an NWA indicating a next writable area.

According to this embodiment, for the plurality of NWAs that may exist,when a writing command requests data to be overwritten on a recordedarea, replacement recording is performed in the open SRR containing thedata to be overwritten. More specifically, when an NWA exists within anSRR (SRR #n) to which a data overwriting command has been given (ormade), replacement recording is performed at the NWA of this open SRR(SRR #n). If the SRRs to which the overwriting command has been given(or made) is unavailable, for example, if the open SRR has been changed(or modified) to closed SRR, the replacement recording is performed at aNWA of a neighboring SRR.

Therefore, when the SRR (SRR #n) to be over-written is a closed SRR,replacement recording is performed in a previous open SRR (SRR #n−1) ora next open SRR (SRR #n+1) of the SRR (SRR #n). Also, the SRR area maybe unavailable because the unrecorded portion may be inadequate andinsufficient for the replacement recording. In other words, theremaining recordable area of the SRR (SRR #n) or the neighboring SRR(SRR #n+1 or SRR #n−1), may be insufficient, and so replacementrecording may not be performed at a single time.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when the remaining recordablearea of the SRR or the neighboring SRRs is insufficient to performreplacement recording, the replacement recording is then performed in anopen SRR nearest the SRR #n having sufficient recordable (or writable)area. When replacement recording of the data is performed as describedabove, continuity of the replacement recorded area may be ensured.Furthermore, waste in the re-allocated defect (RAD) entry or thecontinuous re-allocated defect (CRD) entry, in which the addresses ofthe overwriting area and the replacement recording area is recorded, canbe prevented.

Meanwhile, in another embodiment of the present invention, when theremaining recordable area for the SRR or the neighboring SRR isinsufficient to perform replacement recording, replacement recording maybe performed in the insufficient area and replacement recording of theremaining data may be continued in a next neighboring open SRR. Whenusing the above-described method, a plurality of RAD or CRD entries mayexist in order to indicate replacement recording information of alogical overwriting. Furthermore, in yet another embodiment of thepresent invention, replacement recording of the logical overwriting issequentially performed starting from the first open SRR. Morespecifically, regardless of which SRR the logical overwriting isassociated, the replacement recording is performed starting from thefirst open SRR.

When the optical disc drive performs replacement recording on theneighboring SRR or starting from the first open SRR, the information onthe first open SRR can be obtained by referring to sequential recordingrange information (SRRI) that is recorded in the TDMA. This will bedescribed in detail with reference to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 illustrates an SRRIstructure according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referringto FIG. 6, the SRRI recorded in the TDMA includes a “SRRI Header” field,a “List of SRR entries” field, and a “SRRI Terminator” field.

The “SRRI Header” field includes a “SRRI identifier=‘SR’”field, a“number of SRR entries” field, a “number of Open SRRs” field, and a“List of Open SRR numbers” field. Herein, the number of SRR entries,which will be described in a later process, is recorded in the “numberof SRR entries” field. The number of open SRRs is recorded in the“number of Open SRRs field”, and a number list of the open SRRs isrecorded in the “List of Open SRR numbers” field. In the “List of SRRentries” field, a list of the Open SRR numbers is recorded. Herein, anumber list of a maximum of 16 allocatable open SRRs is recorded. Whenthe number of allocated open SRRs is lower than ‘16’, then ‘0’ isrecorded in an unused Open SRR field. The SRR numbers are aligned by adecreasing (or descending) order. Therefore, the optical disc driverefers to the “List of Open SRR numbers” field when performing logicaloverwriting so as to search and find a replacement recordable SRR. Morespecifically, referring to FIG. 6, when the logical overwriting is to beperformed in a recorded area of a 9^(th) SRR (SRR #9), the data may bereplacement recorded on the 9^(th) SRR, or replacement recording may beperformed on a neighboring (i.e., the closest) SRR, which is the 8^(th)SRR or the 10^(th) SRR, or replacement recording may be performedstarting from the 1^(st) SRR.

A list of SRR entries is recorded in the “List of SRR entries” field, ofthe SRRI. Herein, the SRR entries are sequentially allocated andrecorded starting from ‘1’. At this point, 8 bytes are allocated in anSRR entry, wherein certain information is recorded. The SRR entryincludes a “Start PSN of the SRR #n” field, a “Session start” field, anda “LRA in the SRR #n” field. More specifically, a physical sector number(PSN) of a starting position (or area) of SRR #n is allocated in thesize of 28 bits and recorded in the “Start PSN of the SRR #n” field. The“Session start” field is the size of 1 bit, and a last recorded area(LRA) of SRR #n is recorded in the “LRA in the SRR #n” field, which hasa size of 28 bits.

Thus, the optical disc drive can identify the position information of arecorded area of the corresponding SRR by using the information includedin the SRR entry. The NWA indicating the next writable area may bedetermined by using the “LRA in the SRR #n” field information. Namely,by using the physical sector number (PSN) recorded in the “LRA in theSRR #n”, the first sector of the next cluster becomes the NWA. If ‘0’ isalready recorded in the “LRA in the SRR #n” field, this indicates thatdata is not recorded in SRR #n. Therefore, the sector recorded in the“Start PSN of the SRR #n” field becomes the NWA.

As described above, recording of data in the recordable high densityoptical disc can be broadly categorized into an SRM type and an RRMtype. In the RRM type, the recording of data is performed randomly onall non-recorded clusters. In the above-described RRM type, informationon the recorded status for the clusters in the user data area isreflected in a space bit map (SBM). More specifically, the SBM includesbits matching one-to-one with the clusters of the user data area so asto indicate the recording status of the corresponding area. The methodfor logical overwriting data in the RRM type will now be described withreference to FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 illustrates a logical overwriting method in an RRM type ofrecordable optical disc according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 7, in the RRM type, when an overwritingcommand is transmitted from the host for overwriting data on a recordedarea, the data that is intended to be recorded in the recorded area isreplacement recorded in, for example, a spare area. Due to thecharacteristic of the RRM type, since the data is randomly recorded inthe clusters in the user data area, performing replacement recording ofthe logical overwriting in the user data area may not beefficient.Therefore, in the RRM type, the data of the logical overwriting may bereplacement recorded in the spare area such as the OSA. At this point,the spare area may also be used as a replacement area for a defect area,and so the size of the spare area may be sufficiently assigned andallocated during an initialization of the optical disc.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an optical recording andreproducing apparatus according to the present invention. Referring toFIG. 8, the optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus includes arecording/reproducing device 10 for performing recording/reproduction onthe optical disc, and a host, or controller 20 for controlling therecording/reproducing device 10. (Herein, the recording/reproducingdevice 10 is often referred to as an “optical disc drive”, and bothterms will be used in the description of the present invention).

Basically, in the above-described optical recording and reproducingapparatus, the host 20 gives a writing or reproduction command to writeor reproduce to/from a particular area of the optical disc to therecording/reproducing device 10, and the recording/reproducing device 10performs the recording/reproduction to/from the particular area on theoptical disc in response to the command from the host 20. Therecording/reproducing device 10 includes an interface unit 12 forperforming communication, such as exchanges of data and commands, withthe host 20; a pickup unit 11 for writing/reading data to/from theoptical disc directly; a data processor 13 for receiving a signal fromthe pickup unit 11 and recovering a desired signal value, or modulatinga signal to be recorded into a signal that can be written on the opticaldisc; a servo unit 14 for controlling the pickup unit 11 to read asignal from the optical disc accurately, or write a signal on theoptical disc accurately; a memory 15 for temporarily storing diverseinformation including management information and data; and amicrocomputer 16 for controlling various parts of therecording/reproducing device 10.

In the optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus, process steps ofan embodiment of the method for recording data on the recordable opticaldisc will now be described. Upon inserting the recordable optical discinto the optical recording and/or reproducing apparatus, managementinformation is read from the optical disc and stored in the memory 15 ofthe recording/reproducing device 10. Herein, if the user desires towrite on a particular area of the optical disc, the host 20, whichresponds to a writing command indicating this desire, providesinformation on a desired writing position to the recording/reproducingdevice 10, along with a set of data that is to be written.

The microcomputer 16 in the recording/reproducing device 10 receives thewriting command, and determines (i) whether the area of the optical discin which the host 20 desires to write the data is a defective area ornot and/or (ii) whether the area has already been recorded on based onthe management information stored in the memory 15. Then, themicrocomputer 16 performs data writing according to the writing commandfrom the host 20 on an area which is neither the defective area nor arecorded area. For example, if the area is in a closed SSR or has astarting address less than the LRA of the SSR to be written, then thearea is determined as already recorded.

While performing writing of data as described above, when overwriting isto be performed in accordance with the user command, the data that is tobe recorded (or written) on the overlapping (or overwriting) area isreplacement recorded in another area within the data zone, such as theuser data area or the spare area, as described above with respect to oneof the embodiments of the present invention. Then, correspondinginformation including RAD and CRD entries that are created during thisprocess are recorded in the TDMA within the lead-in area. For this, themicrocomputer 16 provides the position information of the replacementrecorded area and the data according to the command of the host to theservo unit 14 and the data-processor 13, so that the recording orreplacement recording is completed at a desired position on the opticaldisc through the pickup unit 11.

Hereinafter, a method for reproducing data, which is recorded asdescribed above, from the optical disc according to the presentinvention will be described in detail. When the write-once optical disc,wherein the data is recorded, is inserted into the optical recordingand/or reproducing apparatus, management information is read from theoptical disc and stored in the memory 15 of the recording/reproducingdevice 10, for use at the time of recording/reproduction data to/fromthe optical disc.

Herein, if the user desires to read (or reproduce) data from aparticular area of the optical disc, the host 20, which responds to areading command indicating this desire, provides information on adesired reading position to the recording/reproducing device 10. Themicrocomputer 16 in the recording/reproducing device 10 receives thereading command, and using the management information determines whetherthe area of the optical disc from which the host 20 desires to read thedata from is an area that has been replaced. If so, the microcomputer 16determines a position of the replacement area from the managementinformation. However, when replacement recording has not been performed,the microcomputer 16 reads (or reproduces) the data of the indicatedarea and transmits the read information to the host 20. If replacementrecording (e.g., RAD/CRD type) has been performed, the microcomputer 16reads the data from the determined replacement area and transmits theread information to the host 20.

As described above, the method and apparatus for overwriting data on therecordable high density optical disc according to the present inventionhas the following advantages. By providing an efficient method foroverwriting data in accordance with a recording mode of the write-oncehigh density optical disc, when overwriting data on a recorded areawithin the optical disc, the write-once high density optical disc can bemore efficiently managed and reproduced.

While the invention has been disclosed with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, those skilled in the art, having the benefit of thisdisclosure, will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. For example, while described with respect to a Blu-ray write-onceoptical disk in several instances, the present invention is not limitedto this standard of write-once optical disk, to write-once recordingmedia or to optical discs as the recording medium. It is intended thatall such modifications and variations fall within the spirit and scopeof the invention.

1. A method of over-writing a recording medium, comprising: determiningif data for writing on the recording medium is to be written on arecorded portion of a user data area of the recording medium; selectingan unrecorded portion of the recording medium as a replacement portionfor recording the data if the determining step determines the data is tobe written on a recorded portion of the user data area; and recordingthe data in the replacement portion if the determining step determinesthe data is to be written on a recorded portion of the user data area.2. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step selects anunrecorded portion of the user data area of the recording medium as thereplacement portion.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selectingstep accesses management information from a management area to determineunrecorded portions of the user data area.
 4. The method of claim 2,wherein the selecting step determines a beginning of the replacementportion as a beginning of a cluster in the unrecorded portion of theuser data area.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user data area isdivided into a number of recording areas; and the selecting step selectsan unrecorded portion of a recording area as the replacement portion. 6.The method of claim 5, wherein the recording areas are each forsequentially recording data.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein theselecting step accesses management information from a management area todetermine unrecorded portions of the recording areas.
 8. The method ofclaim 5, wherein the selecting step selects an unrecorded portion in therecording area including the recorded portion as the replacement portionif the recording area including the recorded portion is available forrecording.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the recording areaincluding the recorded portion is available for recording if therecording area including the recorded portion has a status of open forrecording.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the selecting stepaccesses management information from a management area to determine ifthe recording area including the recorded portion has a status of openfor recording.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the managementinformation indicates a status for each recording area, each statusindicating whether an associated recording area is open for recording.12. The method of claim 9, wherein the recording area including therecorded portion is available for recording if the recording areaincluding the recorded portion has a status of open for recording andincludes an unrecorded portion large enough to store the data.
 13. Themethod of claim 12, wherein the selecting step accesses managementinformation from a management area to determine if the recording areaincluding the recorded portion has a status of open for recording, and,if the recording area including the recorded portion is open forrecording, the management information indicates a last recorded addressfor the recording area, and the selecting step accesses the lastrecorded address to determine if the recording area including therecorded portion includes an unrecorded portion large enough to storethe data.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein if the recording areaincluding the recorded portion is available for recording, the selectingstep determines a next write address to begin recording the data as abeginning of a first cluster following the last recorded address for therecording area including the recorded portion.
 15. The method of claim12, wherein the selecting step selects an unrecorded portion of arecording area, which is different from the recording area including therecorded portion, if the recording area including the recorded portionis unavailable for recording.
 16. The method of claim 8, wherein theselecting step selects an unrecorded portion of a recording area, whichis different from the recording area including the recorded portion, ifthe recording area including the recorded portion is unavailable forrecording.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the recording areaincluding the recorded portion is unavailable for recording if therecording area including the recorded portion has a status of closed forrecording.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the selected recordingarea is a recording area nearest the recording area including therecorded portion.
 19. The method of claim 17, wherein the selecting stepaccesses management information from a management area to determine ifthe recording area including the recorded portion has a status of closedfor recording.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein the managementinformation indicates a status for each recording area, each statusindicating whether an associated recording area is closed for recording.21. The method of claim 16, wherein the recording area including therecorded portion is unavailable for recording if the recording areaincluding the recorded portion does not include an unrecorded portionlarge enough to store the data.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein themanagement information indicates at least a starting sector of eachrecording area, and for recording areas having a status of open forrecording, the management information indicates a last recorded addressfor the recording area; and if the recording area including the recordedportion is open for recording, the selecting step determines whether anunrecorded portion of the recording area including the recorded portionis large enough to record the data based on the management information.23. The method of claim 5, wherein the selecting step selects anunrecorded portion of a recording area, which is different from therecording area including the recorded portion.
 24. The method of claim23, wherein the selected recording area is a recording area nearest therecording area including the recorded portion.
 25. The method of claim1, wherein the recording medium includes the user data area and at leastone spare area; and the selecting step selects an unrecorded portion ofthe spare area as the replacement portion.
 26. The method of claim 25,further comprising: recording data in the user data area in a randomrecording mode.
 27. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining stepaccesses management information recorded in a management area of therecording medium to determine if the data for writing on the recordingmedium is to be written on a recorded portion of the user data area ofthe recording medium.
 28. The method of claim 27, wherein the user dataarea is divided into a number of recording areas for sequentialrecording of data, and the management information indicates a startingsector for each recording area, indicates whether each recording area isopen for recording, and for each recording area open for recording,indicates a last recorded address of the recording area.
 29. The methodof claim 28, wherein the determining step determines that the data forwriting on the recording medium is to be written on a recorded portionof a user data area of the recording medium if the recording area inwhich the data is to be written is closed for recording.
 30. The methodof claim 28, wherein the determining step determines that the data forwriting on the recording medium is to be written on a recorded portionof a user data area of the recording medium if the recording area inwhich the data is to be written is open for recording and a startaddress for recording the data is less than the last recorded addressfor the recording area in which the data is to be written.
 31. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: recording an entry in amanagement area of the recording medium, the entry indicating a locationof the recorded portion and a location of the replacement portion. 32.The method of claim 31, wherein the entry at least indicates a firstsector of the recorded portion and a first sector of the replacementportion.
 33. The method of claim 31, further comprising: recording atleast one entry in the management area of the recording medium, theentry for defect management indicating a location of a defective portionof the user data area and a location of the recording medium replacingthe defective portion.
 34. The method of claim 1, wherein the recordingmedium is a write-once recording medium.
 35. A method of over-writing arecording medium, comprising: accessing management information recordedin a management area of the recording medium, the management informationindicating a number of recording areas for sequential recording intowhich a user data area of the recording medium is currently divided,indicating a starting sector of each recording area, indicating a statusof each recording area, and for each recording area having a status ofopen for recording, indicating a last recorded address; determining ifdata for writing on the recording medium is to be written on a recordedportion of one of the recording areas based on the managementinformation; selecting, based on the management information, anunrecorded portion of one of the recording areas as a replacementportion for recording the data if the determining step determines thedata is to be written on a recorded portion of one of the recordingareas; and recording the data in the replacement portion.
 36. The methodof claim 35, wherein the selecting step selects the recording areaincluding the recorded portion if the recording area including therecorded portion is available for recording the data, and selectsanother recording area available for recording if the recording areaincluding the recorded portion is unavailable for recording the data.37. The method of claim 35, further comprising: updating the managementinformation after recording the data.
 38. The method of claim 35,wherein the recording medium is a write-once recording medium.
 39. Amethod of recording a data structure on a recording medium for managingover-writing of the recording medium, comprising: storing an entry in amanagement area of the recording medium if a recorded portion of a userdata area on the recording medium is to be over-written with data, theentry indicating the recorded portion and a replacement portion of therecording medium, the replacement portion for storing the data.
 40. Themethod of claim 39, wherein the entry at least indicates a first sectorof the recorded portion and a first sector of the replacement portion.41. The recording medium of claim 39, wherein the replacement portionbegins at a beginning of a cluster.
 42. The method of claim 39, whereinthe replacement portion is in the user data area.
 43. The method ofclaim 42, wherein the user data area is divided into a number ofsequential recording areas for sequential recording; and the recordedportion and the replacement portion are in a same sequential recordingarea if the recording area is available for recording.
 44. A method ofreading data from a user data area of a recording medium, comprising:accessing management information in a management area of the recordingmedium, the management information including at least one entry, theentry indicating a first recorded portion of the user data area and asecond recorded portion of the user data area, the second recordedportion including data for over-writing data in the first recordedportion; and reading data from the second recorded portion when aninstruction for reading data from the first recorded portion isreceived.
 45. An apparatus for recording data on a recording medium,comprising: a driver configured to record data on the recording medium;and a controller configured to receive an instruction for writing dataon a user data area of the recording medium, configured to determine ifthe data for writing on the recording medium is to be written on arecorded portion of the user data area of the recording medium,configured to select an unrecorded portion of the recording medium as areplacement portion for recording the data if the controller determinesthe data is to be written on a recorded portion of the user data area,and configured to control the driver to record the data in thereplacement portion.
 46. An apparatus for reading from a recordingmedium, comprising: a driver configured to reproduce data from therecording medium; and a controller configured to access managementinformation in a management area of the recording medium, the managementarea for including at least one entry, the entry indicating a firstrecorded portion of a user data area and a second recorded portion ofthe user data area, the second recorded portion including data forover-writing data in the first recorded portion, and the controllerconfigured to control the driver to read data from the second recordedportion when an instruction for reading data from the first recordedportion is received.
 47. A recording medium having a data structure formanaging over-writing of data on the recording medium, comprising: amanagement area for storing at least one entry, the entry for indicatinga recorded portion of a user data area of the recording medium that wasto be over-written with data and for indicating a replacement portion ofthe user data area storing the data for over-writing.
 48. A recordingmedium having a data structure for managing over-writing of data on therecording medium, comprising: a management area for storing at least oneentry, the entry indicating a first recorded portion of the user dataarea and a second recorded portion of the user data area, the secondrecorded portion including data for over-writing data in the firstrecorded portion.